Monthly Archives:: August 2012

Prostate cancer in African-American men is associated with specific changes in the IL-16 gene, and by establishing the link in men of African as well as European descent, researchers may have found a useful new biomarker for prostate cancer.

(Phys.org)—When a cell divides, it passes on genetic information by producing copies of its DNA. Chemists have also learned to copy DNA. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a German team has now introduced a new copying technique that uses a single strand of DNA as the "master copy", like a cell, but does not require enzymes. Unlike earlier methods, it allows for stepwise growth of the chain in both the direction preferred by nature and the opposite direction typical of current DNA synthesis techniques.

Electrical engineers overturn existing models to demonstrate the feasibility of a millimeter-sized, wirelessly powered cardiac device. The findings, say the researchers, could dramatically alter the scale of medical devices implanted in the human body.

Obesity rates in North America are a growing concern for legislators. Expanded waistlines mean rising health-care costs for maladies such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. One researcher says that if people do not take measures to get healthy, they may find that governments will throw their weight into administrative measures designed to help us trim the fat.

Five recent Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing DNP graduates have taken different and unique approaches in working to improve the implementation of pain management in hospitals and clinical practices.

Scientists in Denmark have solved an old puzzle, which since the 1960s from many sides has been regarded as impossible to complete. The challenge was to solve the structure of the protecting protein complex that forms when hemoglobin is released from red cells and becomes toxic. This toxic release of hemoglobin occurs in many diseases affecting red cell stability, e.g. malaria.

Researchers have achieved significant benchmarks in a study of the human cardiac protein alpha-tropomyosin, which is an essential, molecular-level component that controls the heart's contraction on every beat. Using an imaging method called atomic force microscopy, scientists have achieved two 'firsts': the first direct imaging of individual alpha-tropomyosin molecules and the first demonstrated examples of a measure of the human cardiac protein's flexibility.